Exception to the Rule

By Lennox Strong

It is accepted in homosexual circles that publishing homosexual fiction is extremely difficult. Even after a gay novel does get into print the battle against poor or inadequate advertising, coupled with adverse critical reviews, often dooms the book to obscurity. However, an occasional exception to this unwritten rule appears. When a writer does have a successful career which includes extensive homosexual writing that is real news.

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Mary Renault, an English novelist, whose real name is Mary Challans, has made a substantial contribution to both male and female homosexual fiction. Miss Renault was born in London, the daughter of a doctor. She studied at Oxford and then spent three years training to be a nurse. She was active nurse both before and during the war. The need for nurses during the wartime kept her active in this line long after she had originally intended to leave the field. Since the end of the war, Miss Renault has written full time, though she had three novels to her credit written on a part time basis during the late thirties and early forties. Miss Renault makes her home in South Africa with a friend whom she met in nurses training.

In 1939 Miss Renault published her first novel, PROMISE OF LOVE, which includes a Lesbian triangle between nurses as a sub-plot. It is remarkably well-written for a first novel and subtle enough to raise little out cry against the thomo. Miss Renault's next venture into Lesbian fiction was in 1944 when she published FRIENDLY YOUNG LADIES in England. In America this book was entitled THE MIDDLE MIST and this time the main theme was Lesbian, very overt and very sympathetic, though the first novel was quite explicit in spots. The heroine of THE MIDDLE MIST is an Englishwoman named Leo who writes "Westerns" for a living. Leo lives on a houseboat near London with a nurse and enjoys the comfortable life as she manages to avoid any but male garb most of the time. The arrival of a younger sister of Leo's complicates the lives of all and the ending is art-

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